Airship.



0. HERMANSON.

AIRSHIP.

APPLICATION FILED Aue.20. I9I5.

Patented July 11, 1916.

Fig.1.

v WITNESSES.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

OSCAR HERMAN'SON, OF NEW YORK, N". Y.

AIRSHIP.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 11,1916.

Application filed August 20, 1915. Serial No. 46,551.

To all whom it may concern Y Be it known that I, OSCAR HERMANSON, acitizen of the United States, and resldent of the borough of Manhattan,in the city, the

county, and the State of New York, have invented new and usefulImprovements on Airships, of which the following is a spec1- fication.

airship that at considerably smaller cost can be fast built with areduced weight and if so desired, shall be so built that it can be takenapart for transportation and an bereassembled for service with'smalltrouble in a short time, and I attain this object by means of a peculiarconstruction I have contrived, that comprises a skeleton of a smallnumber'of compression members, heldtogether with steel rope of which thetensile strength can be'fully utilized in, producing a compact andpowerful body.

In the accompanying drawlng Figure shows the frame of the airshipand'Figs. 2',

3, and 4 details of construction. Fig. 5 is the outer appearance of theship and Fig'. 6

a cross section of the same, While'Fig. 7 refers to a special detail.

As shown in Fig. 1, the frame consists of a number of similar octagonaltransverse,

frames, like that shown in Fig. 2, each consisting of two horizontalbeams AD and HE,

and two vertical beams BG and CF, which arejoined at the"crossings, I,K, L, and M, and at their ends tied with steel rope in the circumferenceABODEFGrI-I.v The size and number of these similar octagonal transverseframes varies according to the size and outer shape of the airship whichwill depend on the Weight it 7 the speed with which. it shall travel.-Of course, I do not confine myself to this peculiar octagonal shape oftransverse frames,

but may use some other attern if there is special occasion for,butprefer the afore defined octagon because I have foundthat shallcarry, and onthereby the material in the compression members is reducedto a minimum.

The several transverse frames are joined in the center by thelongitudinal beams II, KK, LL, and MM, and at the circumference bysteel'cable AA,BB, CC, DD, EE, FF,

GG and HH. Thus the whole frame consists mostly of steel rope with asmall complement of rigid members, and since the high tensile strengthof the steel wire can be taxed to its limit, this construction affords alarge saving of material, compared with other designs, and renders thestructure lighter and cheaper. Another advantage of this peculiar frameis that strains and stresses 1n all of its members can be calculatedexactly as in a bridge truss when the lifting power of the gas to beused becomes Estimating the strains and stresses for all the members ofthe frame in it's normal posiknown and the load to be carried has beenlocated.

tion, we find for every transverse frame the maxima stresses in its 12compression rhe'mbers and the maxima strains in its 8 tension members;andso we find the maxima stresses in the 4 compression members II,

KK, LL, and MM, between any two adjacent transverse frames and themaxima strains-in the-8 tensionmembers AA, BB,

C C, DD, EE, FF, GG, and HHQ Considering now that in a tempest'the shipis liable tofroll over sidewise and even to turn upside down, wherebythe .afore said stresses and strains in the single members are shiftingaround ina circle, we see that all of the homologous members mustreceive the same maximum strength. This means, in every transverse frameits 8 peripheral struts AI,

BI, CK, DK, EL, FL,'GM, and -HM, must be of equal strength, and the4central struts IK, KL, LM, and MIL-again 'must be of equal strength, andso' the 8- tension members', AB, BC, GD, DE, EF, FG,and GIT, mustreceive the same strength. Similarly we find for each space between twoadjacent transverse frames that the i' longitudinal struts II, KK, LLand MM, must be of the same strength, andrthe 8 tension memhers AA, BB,CC, DD, EE, FF, GG, and

HH, also must.be of equal stren h.

' It is apparent that 1n any ot er, kind of frame the strains andstresses of all the members under the considered variations cannotbecalculated with 'thesame exactii above indicated manner for largerairships the future might demand, structural steel for all the struts,for sake of convenience.

of the proper shape and fsizewill be avail"- able, but for lightershipsdemanded by present belligerents, I preferto'use steel tubing Usingcommercial tubing,-.I merely order out lengths, and have rigging pinsfor the end struts made, such as shown in Fig. 3. This pin 1 fits intothe tube 2, to which it is secured by the bolt 3, and provides hold forcables around its neck 4. The central connection of the struts, of which.6 meet. in every one of the L joints I, K, L, and M, is

' obtained by means ofa six armed cross,

In Fig. 5 the airship is shown as it will I of sheet metal o1 of sailcloth that has been.

to prevent twisting of the ship gasbags are placed, and if thespace.

shown. in Fig. 4. These crosses 'may be forged or may be cast in onepiece and then turned on a lathe, so as to olier an exact fit to each ofthe joiningfitubes which will be secured to the cross by means of boltsas in the former case. If these bolts are'screwed, they readily can beremoved and the whole frame taken apart, and if the crosses and.

the tubes are properly marked to indicate where every piece belongs, thedismounted structure may be shipped: anywhere and reassembledwithoutconfusiom In Fig. 1 also has been'shown the horizontal rudder 5,and the vertical rudder 6, rigged in position to the frame.

around its longitudinal axis, diagonal rigging with light rope will beadded between adjacent transverse frames, whiclr'I have omitted in thedrawing for the sake of transparency.

look from the'outside after the frameoi Fig. 1 has been covered. Thecover may be made water proofed and fire proofcd, which can beaccomplished by the same process, and it may be made in one piece, or inremovable sections, laced to one another, frame. Vithin the cover,between every couple of transverse adjacent frames, lifting we prefer asingle bag for every interstice, itmay be made of octagonal shape,exactly fitting in to fill The material for these bags must be gas proofand the four tubes I, K, L, and M, perforating each bag, must be,cemented or mechanically secured tothe bag in a gas tight seal.- H

In order to providefor the expansion of the gas, only so much gas isblown into each bag as will inflate it completely at its fullestexpansion. mallywill not fill the whole space between In order.

or to the r In this manner the bags northe transverse frames, butlifted. by the lighter gas, they"will cling tightly to the outerprotecting cover on top and at-the,

sides, while at the bottom the inflated bag will floaton air, sinkingand rising as the difference of pressures changes.

Accommodations for crew and passengers,

for machinery,armament, fuel and other as not to interfere withthefunctions of the ship. l i

V In order to ridthe airshipcf errrbarraslsment resulting from thevarying buoyancy of the lifting gas I prefer to load the ship so that italways remains a'little heavier than the air it displacesand-consequently will. sink and stick to the ground when not moving.When in motion its propelling power will easily raise the ship to anylevel, S1I1CB no power is required to support the movingislnp. Thelifting effect of its propolling power may be increased by provid ingthe ship with wings, which in Fig. are suggested inthe shape of biplanes7, laterally protruding from its body. Asshc'wn in cross section by thediagram Fig. 6, these biplanes are obt ined by an extension of thehorizontal beams in one or more of the transverse frames, whichextension furnishes on each side two parallel wings that are trussed inthe manner ci. a biplane and pm vide operating platforms, on which thepropelling machinery may be mounted, asindicated by the diagram.

This airship ,m'ay be mounted ,on wheel. or may alight on water. If suchan airship is to do service abovethe ocean where it might be compelledto alight 01- turbulent water, it will be damaged without efficientprotection, but this protection I obtain by means of an inflated bottom.The line EH in Fig. 5 marks the upper rim of the lower section of theshell. If this portion of the bottom is airtightand water tight, we maycover the bottom with-another air tight and water tig'ht skin that isfree from the original bottom and only at the border HH, EE is air tightjoined to it, forming with a sealed envelop that coversthe bottom of theship. If we whats this envelop with air, it will somewhat expand andform an aircushion around the bottom, while the other side, formingtheoriginal cover of the bottom, will bulge out inward in segments in amanner suggested by 7, where the shaded portion is a cross sectionthrough the safely can alight on waves and rise again, .so that such anairship will'be most valuable in the life saving'service for;approaching sinking ships.

In order to protect the propellers of such a'ship, that are shown inFig. 6, I provide the operating-platform 8 with floats 9 un- I drawn bymeans of a pump, they will fold in touching the outer cups as a lining.The

spherical buckets 10, provided with pliable air-tight hemispherical lids11 that -will' stand out as shown in the diagram when inflated with air,but when the air is w th purpose of this device is to serve either aslifting air-cushion, when inflated, or as a mooring weight, whendeflated and filling with water; These floats are only to be used onthe'water;'when in the air they shall not increase the resistanceto'themoving ship andthcre'fore, are pulled up with the stan- ,chions 12 thathinge at'the platform 8 and turn in as shown in Fig."5.-

Having described in the 1. 'An airsh' skeleton consisting of a number ofsi ilar octagonal transverse ,frames, each formedof two pairs of crossedbeams, that at the four crossings are braced by four longitudinal beamsjoining adja- I cent transverse frames; and of wire connectforegoing myin Vention, what I claim asnew and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is

ingperipherally'the corners of each frame, and longitudinally thecorners of-adja'cen frames. c a

2. In askeleton frame-built of tubes, connections thereforv at theirmeeting points comprising an easily removable cross carrying a pluralityof arms, fitting into thejoining tubes andprovided at their baseswithfacets for the'jtubesgto rest upon.

3. In .-a skeleton frame,- built of tubes,

easily removable rigging pins at the free .ends of-these tubes, that fitin the tubes and carry heads for fastening the rigging cables, andfacets for the tubes to rest upon.

4. A protecting float of which the shell consists of one less and onemore pliable half, so that when inflated with air, the shell acts asa-fioat, but; when the air filling the shell is withdrawn by means of apump, the

- more pliable half of the shell folds in, form .ing a lining for theother half, andihp whole filling with Water acts as a niooringf-"bucket. V v

5. Around the bottomof a floating ship an airtight and watertightpliable envelop, at its rim tightly fastened to the bottom of the ship,so that when this envelop is inflated with air, it forms a protectingai'r- 1 lcushion around the bottom of the ship.

' In testimony whereof I have signed my. nameto this specification inthepresence of two subscribing witnesses. v

OSCAR HERMANSON.

Witnesses: I

-GERTRUD (l. Wnssnn,

THEO. A. Hnm'zme.

Copies of this'patent inaw be obtained Iqr fl've cents each,by'addressing. the Commissioner of I'atenta,

Washington, D. G, 1

